Flying Lizards - Money

(Virgin, 1979)

Semi-refining the glacial toy-store give-a-shitisms of “Summertime Blues,” the Flying Lizards continue their entertaining traipse into the novelty noise-fuckery cul-de-sac with yet another r’n’r remake. This one at least contains more “out” soundz guitar-/synth-wise, and the B is a suitably clanky dub version, but just how many deconstructionist covers do we actually need? Certainly not multiple albums worth… go ahead and pick out a Flying Lizards LP (or single!) at random, then sleep soundly knowing that you’ve heard all you’ll ever need to hear from these goofballs.

Flying Lizards - Summertime Blues

(Virgin, 1978)

The Flying Lizards’ version of Cochran’s mass-mind standard “Summertime Blues” stutters and lurches in the opposite direction from Blue Cheer’s guitar-freakout blat-cover of same with no longing looks back. Total mechanized harshness with aggressively icy femme mumbling – rebellion is boring, so is the rawk formula by ’78. Kraftwerk and Bowie had worked at times in a roughly similar realm, but those guys had at least some finesse and grace on display in what they did… the Flying Lizards are clunky, clang-clang-clang industro-crud with about zero concessions made to HUMANITY and FEELING; “petulant minimalism,” sez an insightful sleevenote. B-side “All Guitars” (a group original) is similarly alien soundtrack/instro stuff, a more rudimentary Tubeway Army, mebbe. Interesting and unsettling all around. These folks ran in the same circles as fellow pop-destructocons Family Fodder, appropriately enough, and if you imagined the stripping of that band of all energy and emotion, you’re mentally moping in Lizard League, see. Picture = got.